Why Your Mobile Game May Be Ignored

Check these things out if you're feeling like you might be ignored by writers and players.

I receive a lot of press releases. Most of them are for mobile games, of course, which is an exciting prospect. When you consider there are hundreds upon hundreds of games up for grabs on the App Store and Google Play store for an app lover's perusal on any giving day, it can even become quite daunting. Imagine covering these types of things on a daily or even weekly basis. How do you determine what's worth playing? How do you figure out what's not just another reskin of a popular title? It's tough, but you have to manage. Of course, even if your game is up to par and could be one of the greatest titles in the universe, I might decide that it's not worth my time to check out sometimes. It's rough, but that's how it has to be with the sheer number of games out there. This is a quick piece on why your app may not be picked up by me personally or other reviewers/publications.

You send tons of emails, private messages on social networking sites, and more.
It's great promotion for your game to get in touch with people who may pick it up and write about it, but it's another thing entirely to send email after email or private messages to editors at venues outside of the places they write for. It's bad etiquette for one, but if I haven't gotten back to you by the fourth or fifth follow up email (or have already written back to pass) it might be better to pursue a different path, or improve your app. There's always another time later on down the line when you can try again, and you can make your app/game even better in the meantime.

Your app is clearly unpolished/unfinished.

There's a clear-cut difference between a completed app, and it's usually obvious from the screenshots and other information included in press releases and email communications. If it looks like you spent five minutes on the app's look or mechanics, chances are it's probably not going to fare very well when it comes to coverage. And if snap judgment doesn't work well for your app, there's a chance it's probably not going to do well on the App Store, where all people have to go by are reviews online, the short blurb, images, and player comments. You've got to immediately catch my attention, and sending out an obviously unfinished/unloved app isn't going to do it.

Your approach is boring.

Sometimes I can smell it from a mile away. I open the email, you talk about farting, jumping frogs, or educational apps with the enthusiasm of a tired English teacher. The formatting is absolutely awful, you've misspelled several different words, and you haven't taken the time to really sell your product to me. I understand being a novice, but you must understand this is your lifeblood. This is the thing that you could be living off of for the rest of your life. You want to make it count. Make sure that you do!
Take these pointers and run with them -- don't be offended or upset. Instead realize that us writers do want you to succeed. We want you to create products that you can be proud of. We want you to do well. And if you consider the above reasons as some of the many explanations for why we don't reply, or why we choose to pass on certain games, you'll soon know this to be true as well.